Personality does not distinguish people with fibromyalgia but identifies subgroups of patients.

Personality does not distinguish people with fibromyalgia but identifies subgroups of patients.

Abstract:

OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to compare the personality of fibromyalgia (FM) patients with other chronic painful and nonpainful disorders considering the confusion due to psychopathology and to assess the clustering of FM patients according to their personality profile.

METHODS: Differences in the NEO Five-Factor Inventory between FM, non-FM chronic pain and drug-resistant epileptic patients were assessed including the confounding effect of demographics and psychopathological status by multivariate regression analysis. Clustering of FM patients was assessed by two-step cluster analysis. Differences in clinical severity and psychosocial problems between subgroups and their outcome 6 months after multidisciplinary treatment were assessed.

RESULTS: The final sample comprised 874 patients.

Once the effect of confounding variables was considered, clinically nonsignificant differences in personality were observed between groups.

FM patients could, however, be grouped into two clusters.

Cluster 1 was characterized by higher neuroticism and lower extraversion and showed a worse pretreatment clinical state including more psychosocial problems.

In spite of having reached a wider general improvement at 6-month follow-up, Cluster 1 patients remained more anxious and depressed.

The days when introverts were considered neurotic are rapidly becoming an antiquity confined to a few halls of academia. A proposal to include introversion as a psychiatric disorder in the DSM 5 was soundly defeated for example. And many research studies back up the positive aspects of introversion.

This study may be a classic example of when you start with an inaccurate premise it puts the conclusions in doubt.

When are people going to learn that the brain and the body are attached? Depression and anxiety are frequently concurrent with fibromyalgia. There are sound physiological, not psychological, reasons for this phenomenon. As long as patients are stigmatized by being labeled with psychiatric terms, the treatment of the disorder will remain at a standstill.